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As I felt my skin come into contact with Rogue's, I could feel an almost irresistible pull between us.
The key word was "almost".
I cried out as I felt that pull, but somehow I seemed to be able to resist it. With startling clarity, I realized what had happened.
I gave Mystique a cocky grin. "Not this time," I said. "Ever had trouble using your powers after using them for too long?"
She gave me a shocked glance. "She- she's worn out? Her powers aren't as strong as they would be if this was her first victim…"
"Exactly." By now the pull that I had been resisting was gone… but it had left one hell of a headache behind. I wasn't sure which one was worse. Then the pain started to throb.
Oh yes. The headache was much, much worse.
"Now," I continued, "I am furious. I am in pain. I am going to give you ten seconds to get out, and then I am going to throw you out if you are still here. Forcibly. Your call."
She could have left. Really. I doubt I could have stopped her, even if I had wanted to. But naturally, she chose to try to kill the three of us. She shot toward me, catching me in the chin with her fist. I stumbled into one of the control panels for the Danger Room. I bounced off of it and into her, knocking her backwards, while I scratched at her madly.
She turned into a huge, orange tiger (I think the choice should be obvious) and leapt. Quickly, I planted my feet into her chest and flipped her over the three of us (I was then in front of Rogue and Nightcrawler), and she landed on her paws, spinning around for another charge. As she leapt again, I nailed her hard in the chest with a blast of fire. She roared in pain as I charged another blast.
"Your call, Mystique," I repeated.
She roared again, and ran up the stairs. I followed her to make sure she didn't do any damage to the mansion as she ran to the front door and out into the night.
I slowly turned as I shut the door behind her. I hadn't showed it earlier, but resisting Rogue's touch had worn me out quite a lot. I stumbled to the Danger Room, kneeled down next to Rogue, and carefully checked her pulse.
I didn't bother with gloves, and I didn't need to. There still wasn't any sort of pull coming from Rogue. And she was just fine, her heartbeat calm and steady.
"Well," I said, "That turned out well."
Then I passed out.
I woke up to the sun on my face.
It was not the best way to wake up, when one has a headache-from-hell.
I bit down on my pillow hard, and managed to resist the urge to scream at the top of my lungs. I'd be damned if that would help my headache…
Wait a minute. Pillow? In the Danger Room? What the hell?
I carefully opened my eyes again, and glanced around. I was in my bedroom, lying on my bed. Kurt or someone else must have taken me up here. I wondered how long I had been asleep. A quick glance at the clock showed it to be six. Figured. Even when I got knocked out I woke up at an appointed time.
I scanned the room, not really sure what I was looking for, just scanning.
What I wasn't expecting to find was Logan sleeping at the foot of the bed, in a straight-backed chair. I quickly went from surprise, to feeling touched, to surprise again.
"Logan, when did you get back?" I muttered. His eyes blinked open and he glanced at me.
Then he grabbed me in a huge bear hug.
For about five seconds, I thought I might die of shock. For the five seconds after that, I thought I might die of lack of oxygen.
"Logan… ack!" I managed to get out.
He let go of me. "You all right, Junior?"
"Give me some air and some Tylenol, and I'll be fine."
Logan walked to the door, and I expected him to be getting some painkillers. Then he did something not worthy of anything I had done the night before.
"HE'S UP!" he roared, causing my brain to jump, spin in a circle, and settle down again.
"OW! Oh, ow. Owwwwww."
"Sorry, kid."
"Leo!" shouted Rogue as she shot through the door. She wrapped her arms around my chest, and held me tightly. I found I liked this situation.
"Ah'm so sorry! It's all my fault. Ah'm so sorry!"
"For what?" I said quickly, "It wasn't your fault at all."
"Ah… what if ya had died, Leo?"
"Then you'd blame yourself for the rest of your life, most likely. And what is it about all this death stuff? Why is Logan back so early? What the hell is going on?"
Before my questions could be answered, Kurt 'ported into the room. "Leo, are you all right? Vhat happened?"
"You were there, Kurt."
"Ja, vell, vhat happened vhen I vas knocked out?"
The rest of the X-men showed up right about then. We managed to get the same questions asked about three times each, before I finally managed to take control of the situation.
"Wow, you guys, I'm really touched. I mean, you all were worried about me just because I passed out. And yet, here you all are, yelling out questions, and none of you has gone to get me SOMETHING FOR MY HEADACHE, DAMMIT!"
Everyone shut up, gave one another sheepish looks, and turned to Kurt, who 'ported out at that point, and returned with two Advil and a tall glass of water, which I finished in about three swallows.
"Thank you. Now, as the person who has been passed out all night, I feel I have the right to know what the hell is going on. Why are you freaking out, and why are the adults here already?"
There was a pregnant pause, before Ororo cleared her throat and said, "Today is Tuesday, Leo."
I blinked. "Say what?"
"It's true, man. You've been asleep for three and a half days," Evan added.
"SAY WHAT?!"
"At first, your heart rate had slowed down considerably, and you were barely breathing," the Professor informed me.
"Ah… Ah thought you were goin' ta… ta…" Rogue stared at the floor. "Ya know."
Wow. No wonder everyone was worried about me. If it had happened to one of them, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. It suddenly occurred to me that Logan probably hadn't.
"How long have you been in here?" I asked Logan. He shrugged and muttered something to the floor.
"I'm sorry?"
"Ever since he got home," Jean informed me. "We've been bringing his meals up here."
What do you say to that? "Oh."
No, that's not what you say to that. It was, however, the only thing I could think of at the moment.
The professor spoke up suddenly. "If everyone would leave, I need to discuss a few things with Leo. Rogue, you may stay as well."
Rogue sat slowly on the bed while everyone else filed out of the room. Logan gave me a quick, cryptic glance before closing the door behind him.
"Now, Leo. Kurt and Rogue have told me as much of what happened as they could. However, neither of them knows what happened after they were rendered unconscious. Could you fill us in on this small gap, perhaps?"
You already know the story. I summed it up and told him.
The professor nodded. "Yes, that would explain it."
"And 'it' would be what?"
The professor leaned forward. "While you were unconscious, Jean and I ran some tests." He stopped to see my reaction.
"Of course. Go on."
"Do you understand the principals of vaccines?"
"Well… yeah. The body is given a small amount of a viral strain, and the immune system learns how to fight the virus." I turned to Rogue and winked. "Health class." Then I turned back to Professor X. "What does this have to do with anything?"
"When you touched Rogue in her weakened state, the small amount of power… acted as a vaccine."
I stiffened. "So I have an immunity to Rogue's powers."
"We aren't entirely sure. The only way to be certain is to have the two of you make contact."
Both Rogue and I glanced at one another.
The professor smiled. "I'll leave you two alone to work this out."
After the professor had left, Rogue and I couldn't think of anything to say. We sat on the bed for a few minutes, staring at anything except one another. Finally, Rogue spoke up.
"We should probably wait until you're feelin' better before we try anything," she said slowly.
I glanced at her. "Actually… I don't think I can wait any longer."
She glanced up in surprise. "What…"
I kissed her gently. I didn't actually plan to, but that was what happened. We kissed gently for a few seconds/an eternity before breaking apart.
"I… I guess it worked." I said, then kicked myself for not being able to come up with something more romantic.
"Ah guess so," she replied. Then she kissed me again.
We sat there for about ten minutes, kissing, before I winced. "Damn. We have school."
"Right. If Ah were you, Ah'd get dressed."
It was right about then that I realized that someone had stripped me down to a T-shirt and boxers. I blushed deeply, grabbed a close-at-hand pair of jeans, and yanked them on. "I can't believe you didn't tell me I was wearing next to nothing."
Rogue grinned. "Let's just say school was far from my mind at the moment."
My blush deepened. "Err… I guess we should tell the others that everything worked out."
"Ah see what ya mean. Ya know, Ah've never told anyone I was dating someone else."
"First time for everything." We walked out of the room… for about five feet. Then I felt someone grab me from behind and throw me back onto the bed.
"Logan! What're you doing?"
Logan smirked. "Professor's orders. You gotta stay in bed for a while, Junior."
I considered getting up, but it would have been a wasted effort. I growled and laid back. "How long?"
"'Til Saturday."
"Are you kidding?"
"No. You'll have to stay in bed 'til the weekend. You need yer rest. Night, Junior."
I groaned and stared at the ceiling. "This is going to be a long week."